Message 1
Scripture Reading: Lev. 1:1; 27:34
In this message we shall give an introductory word to the Life-study of Leviticus.
As we come to the book of Leviticus, we first need to have a general idea about the advancement of the divine revelation. All students of the Bible know that God’s revelation in the Bible is progressive. God does not reveal anything fully in just one book of the Bible. Thus, we cannot see a complete view of God’s revelation in one book. The divine revelation advances from one stage to another stage, from one level to another level, from one point to another point. Only when we reach the last chapter of the Bible do we have a complete view of God’s revelation.
The divine revelation in the Bible advances continually. The Bible was written over a period of more than fifteen hundred years, beginning at the time of Moses and ending at the time of the Apostle John. Within this long period of time, the divine revelation was completed, and the books of the Bible were eventually arranged in a meaningful sequence. In tracing the advancement of the divine revelation, we need to follow the sequence of the Bible. Let us now consider how the divine revelation advances in the first three books of the Bible — in Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus.
The book of Genesis reveals God’s creation and man’s fall. According to Genesis, man fell step by step: from God to the conscience, from the conscience to human government, and from human government to rebellion. In this rebellion man forsook God and turned to the worship of idols. After man rebelled against God at Babel, God gave up the created race; however, He could not and did not forsake His purpose. Therefore, after giving up the created race, God called out a new race, a selected race, beginning with Abraham. To Abraham God promised that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:3). Eventually the race selected and called by God fell from God’s selection and calling into Egypt, that is, into the world.
In Genesis we see that man fell from God to the conscience, from the conscience to human government, from human government to rebellion, and from rebellion to the world. Today’s world is the expression of man’s fall to the uttermost, for the world is the ultimate expression of the steps of man’s fall.
The first verse of Genesis says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” and the last verse tells us that Joseph “was put in a coffin in Egypt” (50:26). In the first verse we have God’s creation, and in the last verse we have the issue of all the steps of man’s fall — a man put in a coffin in Egypt. This is the clear revelation in Genesis.
The book of Exodus reveals God’s salvation and the building of His habitation. Yes, the man created by God fell, and the man selected and called by God also fell. But God is God, and He was not disappointed. Nothing can stop Him or annul His purpose. After man had fallen to the uttermost, God came in to rescue fallen man. After redeeming His fallen people, God brought them to a point where He built them together to be His dwelling place on earth. Thus in Exodus we see two main things — God’s redemption and God’s habitation.
The word exodus means “the way out.” What we see in the book of Exodus is the way to get out of man’s fall. Genesis ends with man in a coffin in Egypt, but in Exodus there is the way out of this coffin, the way out of this box of death. This way out involves God’s redemption. God’s redemption is to bring us out of the coffin and back to Himself.
In Exodus those who had been brought back to God were charged to build a tabernacle, a dwelling place, for God. This indicates that God is able not only to bring fallen man out of death but also able to use this man to build a dwelling place for Him on earth. Whereas at the end of Genesis there is a coffin containing a dead body, at the end of Exodus there is a tabernacle containing the living God. What a great advancement this is!
In Genesis we have God’s creation and man’s fall, and in Exodus we have God’s redemption and God’s habitation. We praise the Lord that because of God’s redemption we are no longer in the fall. Through redemption we have been brought into God’s habitation, which for us today is the church. The tabernacle as God’s habitation in Exodus typifies the church. God’s habitation today is the church, and we are in it.
Exodus 40 speaks of the tabernacle, but Leviticus 1:1, which is the continuation of Exodus, speaks of the tent of meeting. These two terms refer to the same thing. The tabernacle is a dwelling place, and the tent of meeting is a meeting place. The tabernacle is for God’s habitation, for His dwelling, and the tent of meeting is for the meeting of His people. The tabernacle is God’s habitation, yet this habitation is also the center where God’s people meet. Hence, it is called the tent of meeting. The tent of meeting is a place for the meeting of God and His redeemed people. Today the church is the tabernacle and the tent of meeting. God has a dwelling place on earth, and this dwelling place is also a meeting place for us to meet with one another and to meet together with God. What is the church? The church is the meeting of the saved ones with the saving God.
As soon as the tabernacle was built and set up, God came to dwell in it (Exo. 40:2, 33-35). The God who indwells the tabernacle has become the God dwelling among men. God is no longer merely in the heavens. It is impossible for us to go to the heavens to meet with God. But God came to tabernacle among us (John 1:14). This means that God became incarnated to be a man, and this man became God’s tabernacle on earth. God came down from the heavens and took on the form of man, and now God can be touched.
The four Gospels reveal that the God who was in the heavens and who was untouchable one day became a tabernacle, a man on earth. Having come down to earth, He presents Himself to us not in the form of God but in the form of man. Who is this One? Is He man or is He God? He is the God-man. Our God today is not only in the heavens as God, for He, the God-man, came to earth in the form of man to be a tabernacle.
The tabernacle in Exodus was enterable. By being incarnated our God not only became a man; He also became an enterable tabernacle. God destined all the children of Israel to be priests (Exo. 19:6) that all might have the right and the privilege to enter the tabernacle, that is, to enter into God and dwell in God. In the Old Testament the priests could enter the tabernacle, and today we, the believers in Christ, can enter into God and dwell in Him. The New Testament speaks of abiding in God (13, 1 John 4:15; 3:24; 2:6). To abide in God is to dwell in God. The incarnated God has become our dwelling place, our home, as a place of enjoyment.
In Leviticus we have the redeemed’s worship and living. We should not follow the common understanding of worship. According to the common understanding, to worship is to bow down or to hold a service with rituals. This, however, is not the denotation of worship in the Bible. In the Bible, worship denotes our contact with God to enjoy a common portion with God for our fellowship with Him. In Leviticus worship is a matter of contacting God by enjoying a common portion with Him. The issue of this is fellowship with Him and with one another in His presence. To do this is to worship God.
For many years we have been trying to practice this kind of worship. However, I must honestly say that we have not been very successful. It seems that by birth we have the concept of religious worship. Furthermore, many of us were raised in an environment of religious worship and learned to practice such worship. Eventually religious worship became a part of our being. This has hindered us from having the kind of worship revealed in the Bible.
Concerning worship, we need to have a change of concept. Whenever we come together we should have a kind of worship that is a matter of contacting God by enjoying Christ as our common portion with God and with one another. If we have this understanding of worship, when we come to a meeting we shall surely share the experience and enjoyment of Christ we have had in our daily life. We may do this by praising, by praying, or by giving our testimony.
We need to drop the religious and traditional way to worship and practice the biblical way, which is portrayed in the feasts. At the feasts there was no religious worship. Instead, there was the enjoyment of the things which the people offered to God. They enjoyed these offerings with God and with one another.
We need to have a worship that is living, real, and rich in Christ. This kind of worship requires that we experience and enjoy Christ every day. It also requires that we exercise our spirit to release whatever there is of Christ in our spirit so that we may share Him with the other saints. In such worship God enjoys Christ, and we also enjoy Him. This is an aspect of the divine revelation in the book of Leviticus.
Suppose in a meeting we contact God by enjoying Christ as our common portion with God and with one another. After such a meeting we shall be holy, for the issue of this kind of meeting is a holy daily life. Then we shall not only be holy worshippers; we shall also be a holy people living a holy daily life. This also is part of the advancement of God’s revelation in Leviticus.
According to the advancement of the divine revelation in Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, we go from creation through the fall to redemption, and from redemption to God’s habitation, where we worship God by contacting Him with Christ as our portion and enjoying this portion with Him and with one another. Out from this worship will issue a holy living in our daily life. Hence, in Leviticus God does not have only a habitation on earth; He also has a people worshipping Him, a people contacting Him and enjoying His Christ as a common portion with Him and with one another, with the issue of living a holy life to express God. This surely is an advancement of the divine revelation.
Let us now go on to make a comparison between certain aspects of Exodus and Leviticus.
There are some significant differences between Exodus and Leviticus. The first difference we would point out concerns the place of God’s speaking. In Exodus God spoke on Mount Sinai, which is a bare mountain; in Leviticus God speaks in the tabernacle, which is a building.
At this point we need to ask a question: Where is God in the book of Leviticus? In Genesis God, generally speaking, was in the heavens. At times He came to earth for a visit, but then He returned to the heavens. In Exodus God was on Mount Sinai. In Leviticus God is in the tabernacle, in the tent of meeting. In Genesis God was in the heavens. In Exodus God came down to stay on Mount Sinai to do a work to build up His habitation on earth. In the last chapter of Exodus, the tabernacle was erected, and the furniture was arranged within it. Then God came into the tabernacle to dwell in it. Now in Leviticus God is in the tabernacle, which is the tent of meeting, and speaks in the tent of meeting.
The first and last verses of Leviticus indicate that the entire book is a record of God’s speaking. The speaking that began in 1:1 took place not in the heavens nor on Mount Sinai but in the tabernacle. God’s speaking today is also in His tabernacle, and this tabernacle is the church. According to the principle of the typology here, God speaks in the church as His tabernacle, the tent of meeting. This tent of meeting is the oracle, the place of God’s speaking.
In the church God is always speaking. The extent to which a congregation is the church actually and practically depends on how much of God’s speaking is there. If a certain group does not have God’s speaking, it is hard to regard such a group as a church.
According to typology, where the tent of meeting was, there was God’s speaking. The children of Israel camped in thousands of tents, but God’s speaking was only in one tent, a unique tent — the tent of meeting.
The one sign of the tent of meeting was God’s speaking. The tent itself and all its furnishings could be copied or imitated, but this is not true of God’s speaking. God’s speaking cannot be imitated, copied, or duplicated. The principle is the same today. Many things in the church can be imitated, copied, or duplicated by others. But one thing cannot be imitated, and that is God’s speaking. God’s speaking is unique. It depends solely on God and not on man.
Suppose that one day Aaron became unhappy with Moses, who was taking the lead in the tent of meeting, and gathered a group of Israelites and made another tabernacle. In every respect Aaron’s tabernacle was a duplicate of the original. In color, material, design, and workmanship the two tabernacles were identical. If you had been there, to which tabernacle would you have gone — to the one set up by Moses or to the one set up by Aaron? You might say, “I would never go to Aaron’s tabernacle; I would only go to Moses’ tabernacle.” This answer is wrong. The correct way to answer this question is to say, “I would never go to a tabernacle where there is not God’s speaking. I would go only to the tabernacle where God speaks. Actually, I would not go to a tabernacle — I would go to God’s speaking. Without God’s speaking, the tabernacle means nothing.”
The preciousness of the tabernacle was not the gold in it. There was more gold in Egypt than in the tabernacle. The preciousness of the tabernacle was God’s speaking. The same is true of the church today. The preciousness of the church is God’s speaking or, as it may be better to say, the speaking God. Praise the Lord that in the church we have God’s speaking! This speaking is a treasure to us.
In Exodus there was the flaming fire, based on the law expressing God’s righteousness. In Leviticus there is the infinite grace, based upon Christ’s redemption expressing God’s righteousness. In Exodus the fire was flaming, the law was decreed, and the righteousness of God was manifested. What is revealed in Leviticus is not the law of God but the redemption of Christ, as signified by the offerings. In Exodus we had the condemning law, but in Leviticus we have the redeeming Christ. Therefore, in Leviticus God’s righteousness is expressed not by the flaming fire but by the infinite grace.
In Exodus God spoke from the fire, but in Leviticus He speaks in His grace. What we have in Leviticus is not the flaming fire but God’s presence as the unique grace given to His redeemed people.
In Exodus the flaming fire made God fearful to people. In Leviticus Christ’s redemption makes God approachable to people. In Exodus God was the fearful One, and no one dared to come nigh to Him or to approach Him. In Leviticus Christ’s redemption has made it possible for people not only to approach God and come near to God but also to eat together with Him, that is, to commune with Him and have fellowship with Him. In the church today God is approachable. We can contact Him, commune with Him, and fellowship with Him, enjoying Christ with Him. This is the revelation in the book of Leviticus.
Now we need to see the general sketch of the book of Leviticus. The general sketch is this: Through the tabernacle, with the offerings, and by the priests, God’s redeemed are enabled to fellowship with God, serve God, and be God’s holy people living a holy life, which expresses God. To fellowship with God means to feast with God, to enjoy Christ with God. This is possible through the tabernacle, with the offerings, and by the priests, which for us today are all a matter of Christ. The issue of enjoying Christ with God is that we become God’s holy people living a holy life. This holy living is the issue of the enjoyment of Christ. When we enjoy Christ with God, there is a result, and the result is a holy living, a living in which everything in our daily life is holy. As God’s redeemed people, through the tabernacle, with the offerings, and by the priests, we can be enabled to contact God, to fellowship with God by enjoying Christ, to serve God in Christ, and to be a holy people in Christ living a holy life.
The central thought of Leviticus is that Christ is everything in the fellowship, service, and life of God’s redeemed. Dr. C. I. Scofield once pointed out that Christ can be seen in every page of this book. In Leviticus Christ is everything. He is the offerings, He is the high priest, and He is everything in the living of God’s redeemed people. Leviticus, therefore, is a book on Christ and full of Christ.
The book of Leviticus can be divided into five sections: ordinances concerning offerings (chs. 1—7), ordinances concerning service (chs. 8—10), ordinances concerning living (chs. 11—22), ordinances concerning feasts (ch. 23), and other ordinances and warnings (chs. 24—27).
